


shorties

by Schnikeys_Discuss (Schnikeys)



Series: Clockie's Meta [33]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Analysis, Archived from radioactivesupersonic Blog, Character Analysis, Gen, Nonfiction, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:48:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27068140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schnikeys/pseuds/Schnikeys_Discuss
Summary: "I maintain the personal headcanon that between Ghost, Hornet, and the Pure Vessel, Ghost is actually the oldest."
Series: Clockie's Meta [33]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974223
Kudos: 16





	shorties

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ClockworkRainbow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClockworkRainbow/gifts).



I maintain the personal headcanon that between Ghost, Hornet, and the Pure Vessel, Ghost is actually the oldest.

Thing is, creatures with exoskeletons grow up by molting. If your entire head is encased in a rigid holy mask that keeps the void animating you in place, you kind of can’t molt without dying, unless you have a new mask to grow into. In the Abyss, all the Vessels are pretty much the same size. The Broken Vessel / Lost Kin seems taller than most but their mask is the same dimensions as the others still.

So Ghost is older, but just, hasn’t been able to grow up this whole time. And then there’s Hornet, who’s not exactly natural, but she’s not a void-creature dependent on a mask, so she can just molt and grow up like an ordinary beast. And lastly, Pure, who is the only Vessel given the resources to grow to full adult size, even if they’re actually the youngest.

It also means Ghost probably got tired relatively fast of hearing people comment on how short they are. Just, shut up shut up they know already they can’t do anything about it. They’re stuck this size. ~~And then Embrace The Void happens and they rocket past everyone, ha ha you jerks who’s short now~~

* * *

On the flipside I actually don’t think Pale King is particularly bothered by being short? After all he did deliberately choose that.

So he’s just like… the temperament and spirit of a very large creature in the body of a very small one. He’ll casually call things that tower over him ‘not very large’. Is it larger than that mountain? No? Then it’s really not that big. Yes, he understands its bigger than him, that doesn’t mean its size has somehow changed. Things factually occupy a given amount of space. Hegemol factually is not larger than a mountain, ergo, he is sort of large, maybe, for a bug, but really rather small in the big sense of things. Yes, he understands his entire body is the size of Hegemol’s mace at best. Your point.

And I mean, I also have some headcanons about how Higher Beings work in terms of their relationship to their dream realms, so, technically speaking PK isn’t even specifically _smaller_ than he was, he’s just currently existing in a state where 90% of him isn’t on a physical plane and the remaining ten percent is hanging out in three dimensional space like an anglerfish lure with a finger puppet on it.

**Author's Note:**

> Analyses originally found here:  
> <https://radioactivesupersonic.tumblr.com/post/184392283000/i-maintain-the-personal-headcanon-that-between>  
> <https://radioactivesupersonic.tumblr.com/post/184392849485/on-the-flipside-i-actually-dont-think-pale-king>


End file.
